Sand and Gravel Deposits in the Canmore Corridor Area, Alberta

This report, The Sand and Gravel Resources of the Canmore Corridor, is the first of a series of reports which discuss the sand and gravel resources of the province of Alberta. It is intended to provide information on the sand and gravel resources of Alberta. This information can provide a starting point for detailed exploration programs and can aid planners in making decisions involving land use.

This survey is concerned with delineating and describing presently exploitable deposits and identifying deposits with future potential. The deposits described are mappable at a scale of 1:50,000, have a thickness of at least 1 m, and have a ratio of overburden to gravel and sand of no more than 1:1. Volume or tonnage figures are general estimates based on a geological interpretation of the deposits and not detailed subsurface data.

The Canmore Corridor is situated in the Bow River valley between the Stony Indian Reserve and the boundary of Banff National Park. The area is located in NTS map area 82/0/3 (51 degrees 02'' to 51 08'' N. latitude and 115 degrees 03'' to 115& #176;26'' W. longitude) and within Tp. 24, R. 8, 9, and 10 and Tp. 25, R. 8, 10, and 11 W. 5th Mer. The town of Canmore occupies a central position in the Corridor and the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway are major transportation arteries through the valley.

Bedrock geology of the Canmore area was mapped by the Geological Survey of Canada (R.A. Price, 1970a and 1970b) at a scale of 1:50,000. The surficial geology of the area was studied by N.W. Rutter as his Ph.D. thesis (1965) and the results have been published in Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 206 (Rutter, 1972).